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Sunland Park councilor may sue over arrest

LAS CRUCES – A Sunland Park city councilor who is seeking to unseat the city’s current mayor in the upcoming municipal election claims Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputies illegally searched and seized his vehicle and intentionally harassed him during

Sunland Park councilor may sue over arrest

LAS CRUCES - A Sunland Park city councilor who is seeking to unseat the city’s current mayor in the upcoming municipal election claims Doña Ana County sheriff’s deputies illegally searched and seized his vehicle and intentionally harassed him during his arrest in September on misdemeanor drug charges.

Sergio Carrillo, 30, makes those allegations in a tort claims notice sent to the Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office. A copy of the Dec. 22, 2015, letter was obtained by the Sun-News.

Carrillo, who was elected to represent Sunland Park’s District 4 in 2012, was arrested on Sept. 28, 2015, by sheriff’s deputies during a city council meeting. He was charged with possessing less than 1 ounce of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to a criminal complaint.

Although Carrillo sent the tort claims notice to county officials, it remains unclear whether he will file a civil complaint. “Mr. Carrillo has not made a decision at this time on when or even if a civil suit will be filed,” Carrillo’s attorney, Jess Lilley of Las Cruces, said Thursday.

Lilley is representing Carrillo in his criminal case.

The day before Carrillo was arrested, sheriff’s deputies were called out to an incident involving “suspicious circumstances” in Santa Teresa shortly after 4:30 p.m., court documents state. A resident called authorities to report two people “digging and possibly burying something” in the 100 block of Kite Court. They appeared to have a black bag in their possession, the caller reported.

A deputy found the two individuals, plus a third, inside a parked vehicle, according to court records. The driver, later identified as Carrillo, turned on the vehicle and began to drive away as the deputy approached. But the deputy eventually made contact with the occupants, who also included Chris Medina and Esmeralda Arellano.

“As soon as the driver lowered his driver side window,” the complaint states, “a large cloud of burned marijuana smoke exited the vehicle and into the Deputies (sic) face.”

The deputies told the individuals to step out the vehicle and asked for consent to search it. Carrillo did not give consent for the search, court documents state.

“Carrillo insisted that we were breaking the law and decided to remain on the scene” while the deputies obtained a search warrant, according to the court documents.

A search warrant was obtained at 10:35 p.m., and by 10:44 p.m., the deputies began searching the vehicle. It was completed after midnight.

During the search, a number of drugs and drug-related items were found in the vehicle, including the following:

A silver container that contained half of a burned cigarette described as a “roach” wrapped in “strawberry zig zag paper”

A glass pipe that also had burned marijuana residue as well as a small amount of marijuana

A marijuana grinder that contained marijuana residue

A folded piece of paper that contained less than 1 ounce of unburned marijuana.

The complaint alleges the locations of where the items were found in the vehicle “showed that all three occupants played a role in consuming and possessing.”

Arrest warrants were then obtained for all three. Carrillo was arrested the following day around 9 p.m. during a Sunland Park City Council meeting. “Deputies asked to speak with Carrillo and immediately placed him under arrest,” an incident report from the sheriff’s office states.

He was booked into the Doña Ana County Detention Center and was released several hours later after posting a $1,500 cash bond, jail records show.

“It is not typical for the Sheriff’s Department to request arrest warrants on these types of charges, and my arrest during the meeting was done to intentionally harass and embarrass me,” Carrillo wrote in the tort claims notice.

In the letter, Carrillo wrote that "a passenger in my vehicle had smoking marijuana." He does not say he smoked marijuana.

He also wrote that deputies “falsely accused me and my passengers of burying something in the desert" and claimed they illegally seized his vehicle. The court documents and incident reports do not mention a vehicle seizure.

Under county policy, officials are not allowed to comment on pending lawsuits.

On Thursday, Lilley said Carrillo’s criminal case is “on the standard docket process” in Magistrate Court.

A pretrial hearing took place Thursday, and Lilley said, “The parties requested further court settings in early April for a docket call and jury selection.”

Official notices of these hearings were expected to be sent out later Thursday, he said.

“Mr. Carrillo looks forward to having the magistrate court case resolved in his favor,” Lilley said.

Earlier this month, Carrillo announced that he would challenge incumbent Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea for the city’s top elected position. The election is March 1

In December, the cases against Medina and Arellano, who faced the same charges, were dismissed by Magistrate Judge Beverly Singleman, online court records show. Records show the cases were dismissed because of "failure to prosecute."